F
There were many. Revolutions arouse enthusiasm. But as social changes deepen, they take a prudent distance, becoming Fans
Defenders of the free market and meritocracy. Writers, essayists, philosophers, actors, sociologists, thousands of professionals in Latin America and Western Europe have ended up cheering Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Joe Biden, presidents of the Democratic Party, belonging to the American establishment. However, their governments are full of human rights violations. They constitute an attack on democratic values. Walls on the border with Mexico, illegal detentions, hot expulsions of immigrants, arms sales to genocidal governments, blockades and arbitrary and inhuman sanctions. They ignore the fact that the United States has one of the most unequal social structures in the Western world. An asymmetric social order controlled by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, arms companies and banks. The military, financial and technological industrial complex. Those who clamor to follow their path, yesterday enthusiastic anti-imperialists, today defend the empire.
In Latin America, as in cultured and Western Europe, many of the former enthusiasts are literate people. Their names appear in history texts. Their novels, poems, essays are required reading in the Ministries of Education. Their thought has been disseminated, studied and praised. I refer to those who, in their day, formed part of the great family of the Latin American and world left. A family broken into pieces, with violent divorces. They were enthusiastic Marxists, Guevarists, Gramscians, Trotskyists, Maoists, Leninists, today they say fall off the cherry tree
They have seen the light and proclaim the good news. Capitalism is their salvation. The United States is their beacon and the market society is the best possible society. They are committed to being its critical conscience. It would be a matter of adjusting the gears. Among others, gender inequality, the rights of ethnic minorities, the racial gap, global warming, sexual identities or free access to the Internet. Tasks embraced with the same enthusiastic passion as in their time leftist
. It is enough to recall the octogenarian former minister of Salvador Allende, Fernando Flores, currently a great businessman. He swore by socialism and openly supports the right. In 2010, during the government of Sebastián Piñera, he was appointed president of the National Council of Innovation for Competitiveness. An enthusiast of the Unidad Popular, he lived in exile in the United States. Today, he is a staunch defender of the rights of capital and a visceral anti-communist. He is an example, name any country you like.
In his essay Listen white! (1952), Franz Fanon defined the enthusiasts. “This book should have been written three years ago… But then, the truths burned us. Today we can say them without fever. (…) Its intention is not enthuse. We distrust the enthusiasm. (…) He enthusiasm It is par excellence the weapon of the impotent, of those who heat the iron in order to forge it immediately.” How right! The former revolutionaries have been transformed into globalist fanatics of the order of capital. Using an analogy, Franz Fanon described the enthusiastic converts as part of cultural alienation, where the black man loses his identity. As painful as this observation may be for us, we are obliged to make it: for the black man there is only one destiny. And this destiny is white.
. For our disillusioned leftists, redeeming themselves from their past consists in praising the spurious version of liberal democracy. There is no alternative, and if there were, the facts
demonstrate that it is neither desirable nor viable. The choice is black and white: freedom or communism.
When did they break down? What led them to renounce the ethical principles of humanism? Why do they amass so much hatred towards socialism? The answer cannot follow the same path as the enthusiasts, focused on disqualifying, insulting and qualifying. They are crusading entrepreneurs, armed with diatribes and clichés. Here I exclude the usual defenders of the market society located in the neoliberal reason, whatever their surnames are.
Human lukewarmness and the desire for prominence buys wills. Money is not always the means used to add enthusiasts to liberal militancy. Status and power are not always reflected in a bank account. Scientific and literary awards, publicity in social media, publication of their works, institutional visibility, everything counts. It is the way to sponsor the enthusiasts converts. Some of them may have held positions of responsibility in governments, being former presidents, ministers, senators, deputies, the family of the former is extensive. In crisis situations, they gain relevance, they influence public opinion, they have institutional coverage, they are interviewed, their opinion columns are translated into different languages and widely reproduced. The political and social right gives them shelter. In their new role as enthusiasts, they keep a secret: they are the spitting image of Oscar Wilde’s character: Dorian Gray. Today, Venezuela is the target.
